Systems are known to protect people and assets within secured areas. Such systems are typically based upon the use of one or more wireless detectors that respond to threats within a secured area.
Threats to people and assets may originate from any of a number of different sources. For example, a fire may kill or injure occupants who have become trapped by a fire in a home. Similarly, carbon monoxide from a fire may kill people in their sleep.
Alternatively, an unauthorized intruder, such as a burglar, may present a threat to assets within the secured area. Intruders have also been known to injure or kill people living within the secured area.
In the case of intruders, detectors or sensors may be placed in different areas based upon respective uses of those areas. For example, if people are present during some portions of a normal day and not at other times, then some detectors may be placed along a periphery of a space to provide protection while the space is occupied, and additional sensors may be placed within an interior of the space and used when the space is not occupied.
In most cases, threat detectors are connected to a local control panel. In the event of the threat detected via one of the threat detectors, the local control panel may sound a local audible alarm. The local control panel may also send a signal to a displaced monitoring station.
While conventional security systems using wireless detectors work well, they are sometimes subject to unexpected failures. For example, fire and security systems that employ mesh networks with single controllers have a single point of failure that could result in lost communications to one or more areas protected by a system. A need exists for better methods and apparatuses for diagnosing such systems.